The days passed with remarkable peace.
Zhang Han was not devoid of any necessities. There was food, water, vegetables, a shelter to stay in, and even one slightly annoying companion to avoid loneliness. He was unable to leave the safety of Vaien's home by himself, but he didn't mind it too much. He was the type that could whittle away days in work, obsessed over whatever paper, treaty, or project he was working on.
Moisture gathered stifling humidity and the sun brought down a torrent of near-tropical heat. He was often sweating during these hours, but always persisted.
Right now it was building tools and weapons when he had never done so before.
This took a lot of hit and miss attempts, trying to scrounge up memories of his past days at the military academy, and much tolerance for failure.
About two weeks passed as he carefully gathered parts and tinkered around.
...
Vaien leaned back against the cave and yawned widely and lazily.
Another early morning that Zhang Han was awake before him. They played around so much last night, so did Zhang Han even get more than four hours of sleep? He peeked an eye open and stared at the various stages of projects lying outside.
Suddenly, his gaze stuck onto something leaning against the cave wall.
"Zhang Han, what's that going to be?"
An arched and thin piece of ship hull that had been dug out and melted into shape with care leaned against the wall. The far edges of it were notched, all in all, it was the making of a bow. The only part missing was the string to fly arrows off of.
"Oh, that…" Zhang Han fidgeted with his hands, hoping Vaien wouldn't mock him for his shoddy craftsmanship. "I was planning to make a bow. It would use an energy core like my blaster gun and make bolts of energy. Like this, each shot could travel farther, faster, and with more weight than my gun. I thought it could be useful for piercing animals with thick hides."
If Zhang Han had the choice, he wouldn't have made a bow, but a larger sniper rifle or gun. But that option wasn't on the table. He simply didn't have the right parts or skill, so he'd made a bow.
Vaien had nodded slowly along with what Zhang Han said.
In fact, he was hiding his screaming feelings of curiosity. After all, this Zhang Han was actually be pretty intelligent and useful, all the things he'd made were interesting at the very least! Even if Zhang Han had the cheat of modern technology, being able to create a weapon like this here would be extremely valued by the other groups.
Vaien thought about showing him off to the other people around here...but then quickly decided not to. He'd rather keep him all to himself.
Eagerness on his face, he took a step towards Zhang Han and asked, "When do you think you'll finish it?"
Zhang Han paused. Well...
"A few days if I keep working on it. I need to make adjustments and find a steel string to use. I also have to make sure the energy core is at the correct power amplification level, otherwise it will blow my arm to pieces when I use it."
Haha. That would be tragic.
Vaien boldly said, "If you're worried about that, just let me test it out first. Easy!"
"Sure. Once I'm done, we can go out hunting together?"
"Good plan."
Zhang Han had an urge to lift his eyes away from his work.
Vaien's eyebrows were raised, lips pressed slightly together in anticipation. It was actually sort of cute how he tried to act nonchalant when he was actually so eager. See, Vaien was imagining all the difficult to hunt species that might be weak to this bow. Then from there all the new species that he could try cooking over his fire to eat. What wasn't there to be excited about?!
"..."
Zhang Han got up and started putting some of the other things lying about back into the sack. He wouldn't need them right away if he focused on making this bow for a while.
…
A day passed, and within that day, Vaien kept asking Zhang Han when he'd be done with it.
Incessantly.
Zhang Han could only cry out in joy inside when the prototype was finally done.
"Great," said Vaien. "Now let's go out and use it. I have to see if it's really all that you talked it up to be."
Zhang Han gave a dry reply of agreement. His face was deadpan and tired from these days of tolerating a man-child.
They went down the cliff side.
To be honest, Zhang Han was getting a bit more used to things here. The food, the cave, the life here. Bathing in the river and hanging around Vaien.
This planet wasn't too bad. He just wished that the animals weren't as menacing. You know, the rip you apart and eat your insides kind of menacing.
They stepped out onto the grassy and green plains. Today a herd of white deer with a single horn on their head were grazing in the distance. If one got too close, they'd bound away in wide leaps quite gracefully.
Vaien already had the bow in his grasp. He lifted it horizontally with pooling blood thirst swirling in his contracted pupils.
A small and thin energy core was attached to the bow frame near the center of the arc to prevent imbalance, and one would have to press their finger against before they pulled out the wire string in order to activate the function of creating an arrow.
Vaien tapped it and pulled, and a large and flickering blue line appeared, notched like a bolt of lightning on the trembling bow string.
The deer in the distance were munching along with their heads down in the grass, unsuspecting of a predators that stood off so far away.
Vaien pulled his fingers out even more to make the bowstring as tight as possible, then released.
He was instantly shot backwards from the recoil, smacking into the ground with a puff of dirt and dust. A startled grunt came from his lips.
Zhang Han widened his eyes at the scene, but the laser arrow had a force even more violent.
There was a blaring and sizzling sound as its huge blast of energy zipped over the grass, cutting it down like a mower until it struck the head of a deer between its eyes.
In an instant that deer's head exploded into a burst of red and pink matter. It was annihilated to the point that the rest of the herd took off in bounds, terrified. The headless body of the deer swayed and then dropped onto the ground, leaking blood everywhere.
"..." Zhang Han was speechless for a moment.
He then turned his gaze to Vaien who'd been knocked into the ground. The man stood up and patted off his clothing, a small dent left in the soil below. Vaien kept a cool expression, brows slightly firmed downwards as though pretending he'd never been thrown backwards and onto the ground like a fool.
"Looks like I need to make adjustments, after all," Zhang Han said. There was a smile on his face, both eyebrows arched in amusement.
Vaien gaped at him, those two golden pupils splayed wide. Then he stepped towards him until they were only a foot apart.
Dumbly, he said, "H-Hey...you look good when you smile. More alive."